My personal observations; inspired by life experiences and the world around me. My own revelations; thoughts; snippets of wisdom; random insanity; blunt honesty. I hope to attempt in some small way to be insightful; or not so much. Some laughter, a few tears but mostly just... ME!
The thoughts, views and comments written here are mine alone and written from the beliefs I have developed, from the observations, actions and words of others.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Safety Alert!!!

This is an open letter to the mayor of San Diego. We are now 4 days into the new fiscal year and with this come serious concerns that are being ignored by the mayor and council. The citizens are oblivious to the crisis facing law enforcement and the dangers they now face. Who is going to stand up and demand something be done? What will it take for people to get involved and refuse to accept this as OK? Let me first provide the background information from which I draw my beliefs to make the statements about Public Safety.

The City of San Diego is now the 9th largest city in America. We are 600 people shy of the 8th largest city; Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Police Department is staffed with 2,977 sworn officers and 556 civilian support staff (Does not include Communication Staff). The San Diego Police Department is staffed with 1,852 sworn officers (163 unavailable due to injury leave, military leave or other reasons) and 650 civilian support staff (Included Communication Staff). This leaves the San Diego Police Department with 1,689 sworn officers available for service. Of this number, 59 are managers (Lieutenants, Captains, and Chiefs) and not answering radio calls or investigating crime; 50 are recruits and still in training; with an additional 51 still in the academy; this leaves 1,529 sworn police officers, detectives, sergeants and detective sergeants to handle police related calls for service and investigations. If you delete the 80 detective sergeants and 280 detectives from this number, you have 1,169 uniformed officers to patrol the streets of San Diego, from San Ysidro to the Wild Animal Park. The Police Department has a budgeted strength of 2,127 sworn officers. At the current rate of attrition and the inability to certify candidates for the academy; the police department will never meet full staffing.

The San Diego Police Department has lost 252 sworn members of the department in the past 12 months. We have lost 2 Assistant Chiefs, 2 Captains, 7 Lieutenants, 27 Detective Sergeants, 24 Patrol Sergeants, 3 Agents, 49 Detectives, 79 Police Officer II's, 34 Police Officer I's, and 25 Recruits. This equates to approximately 21 officers per month leaving for various reasons. The combined police experience lost exceeds 4,000 years service to the Citizens of San Diego. There are currently 51 recruits in the Police Academy with an additional 41 (Budgeted for 50 recruits, but unable to find the additional 9 qualified candidates) starting on the 20th of July. (The original post indicated the October Academy was cancelled. Chief Kanaski corrected this item and said the department is working to fill the October class with 50 recruits)

The taxpaying citizens, visitors, and workers of this community have a right to know the reality of Public Safety in this City. They have a right to know the state of their police department and how we got to the point we are at. They have a right to know we will soon be incapable of meeting their requests for service. They have a right to know the level of REAL staffing on the streets of San Diego during the nighttime hours after midnight. They have a right to know we are doing everything humanly possible to meet the calls for service; but the days of "doing more with less" have reached the breaking point.

Mr. mayor; would you please share with the taxpaying citizen your reasons for decimating a once great police department and forcing its most experienced, senior police officers and leaders to leave; many before they were ready or wanting to? Would you share your reasons for imposing an unacceptable contract upon the police officers of this City that included reductions and cuts to wages and benefits NONE of the other workers of this City were subjected to? Would you explain to the taxpayers why you have eliminated the funding for the next academy class of recruits? Would you explain the difference between your receiving your Retirement payments from SDCERS and salary and benefits as mayor and those officers who are participants of the DROP program?

The San Diego Police Department will prioritize all calls for service from citizens as they are received. With the lack of staffing, the Police Department will be forced to STOP responding to the "Quality of Life" issues citizens call seeking help with; trespassing; panhandling; illegal lodging; drunks on the sidewalk, in parks and buildings; loud music; barking dog; illegal parking; juvenile neighborhood problems; loud party; vandalism; graffiti; urinating in public and similar types of requests. What do you say to these people mayor, who want to know why we are not meeting their requests to provide safe, secure and livable neighborhoods?

When you were Chief of this police department, you boasted of the "Community Orientated Policing" and "Problem Orientated Policing" programs you put in place, to better serve the community. You increased the supervisor ranks to almost double what it was before you took over; to have what you called, "Closer Supervision" of officers and reduce the "Span of Control" for supervisors. What is different today and why is "Community Orientated Policing" and "Problem Orientated Policing" not important? Please do not insult us and the community and tell us these programs are still important and will continue. Who is going to do these tasks and when? Answering priority calls for service will be our only option due to staffing levels created by you and your policies.

Mr. mayor; please tell us what you will say to the family of that energetic new rookie officer killed in the line of duty because he lacked experienced mentors and supervisors to guide him in his learning process? What will you say to the family of the Detective killed in the line of duty; working excessive hours; did not have a cover unit to assist him; when confronted by an armed, repeat offender? Please tell us what you will say to the family of the child killed in the park because officers could not respond to their calls for help in a timely manner?

You have created a crisis never before seen in ANY American City. It is time mayor, you stop playing a game you know nothing about; POLITICS. It is time you start acting in the best interest of this City; its citizens; visitors and workers; employees and retirees alike. It is time you set priorities that make sense. Public Safety is the number one priority of every citizen and it should be yours. STOP PLAYING POLITICS and sit down with the City Council and formulate a plan to add 500 police officers in the next 36 months. Do not tell us you can't. CAN'T means you are not willing. You, like any of us, can do anything we set our minds to. Set aside the money necessary to hire and retain these officers NOW. It can be done and must be done now. To wait one day will further place citizens and officers in jeopardy unnecessarily. Start double sessions or double or triple sections in the Academy with 75-100 recruits per class. It has been done before and it MUST be done NOW.

If you are a citizen in the community and were not aware of this crisis; it is real and it is now. This is not a scare tactic or ploy for additional money. FREEZE my salary for the next two years; BUT we must hire and train 500 additional officers if we are going to provide the public safety services you want and need. To do anything less will leave you and the police officers who provide for your safety in danger.

9 comments:

It's a rare and unique circumstance to even think about mentioning the SDUT in a positive way now-a-days.

However, in Sunday's editorial section the lead OP/ED piece endorses the idea of local government bodies conspiring together to fix wages. The board believe its a good idea for local to form partnerships and collude together, setting salary and benefits structure for the region. In other words price fixing for our wages.

I know you think I'm crazy. I'm merely thanking the editorial board for alerting us to the latest and newest attack on our wages and benefits, absolutely nothing more.

Price or wage fixing in this instance requires a conspiracy between two or more. In this proposal, two or more government agencies will conspire to set wages. The purpose is to coordinate wages for mutual benefit at the expense of workers.

Governments will agree to set a common rate for compensation; set a common "minimum" benefits; and get other agencies to adhere a set schedule not taking into account any nuances of task vs. skills. To bolster their conspiracy these agencies will engage in cooperative advertising for positions, standardize job descriptions offered to thwart changes. They will develop uniform polices for allowances and limit specialties.

They will purposefully share or "pool" the availability of jobs to control competition between the local agencies.

The funny thing about all this is price fixing is illegal, and I suspect the same will be true for wage fixing. For example, Meyers -Millias-Brown Act requires a Duty to Bargain (Meet and Confer) in Good Faith. This act has been repeated upheld by the courts, and in fact, was used against the POA in the Court hearing on June 25th to get the POA back to the table on the DROP issues. Yet today we're learning our local politicians, not willing to meet the obligations they bargained for are ignoring it and developing this a proposal.

Here's how, the media, especially the SDUT has and is whipping the electorate into a frenzy of hate toward public employees i.e. their salary and benefits. In doing so,the path down this dark road will be tolerated or even sanctioned by some, particularly among those who have much to gain.

Please read the editorial yourself, be aware of where it can lead if it's not immediately opposed.

"Comments are temporarily unavailable due to technical difficulties. Thank you for your patience."

The service the SDUT uses to manage it comments is up and running just fine... Seems the 90% negative comments on their "Watchdog" piece on City Payroll has made to hot to stay in the kitchen... Watch...once it's cooled down a little, the ability to post comments will magically be fixed!

In the private sector corporate world, someone in upper management would have their head on the chopping block with this type of attrition. If your numbers are correct, and I have no reason to dispute them, then something is seriously wrong within the organization’s upper management.

For such a large number of people to walk out the door in such a short period of time is definitely a sign that not all is well. Upper management has the fiduciary responsibility to curtail this type of loss, maintain a high level of employee morale and proactively recruit and immediately replace the vacated positions.

Your organization (and any organization) will suffer immensely if the immediate response is to shuffle employees around to fill the void. It is a “smoke and mirrors” response which always fails miserable. If this is the reaction which the San Diego Police Department chooses, as an organization, you are being set up to fail.

Qualified replacements need to be actively recruited, and this should be management’s top priority. An immediate shuffle response just leaves less visible spots vacant, and further erodes employee morale. A shuffle never addresses the underlying issue, which in this case is a significant loss of employees.

My compliments to your well researched and written Blog. My sincere appreciation to the hard working women and men of the San Diego Police Department.

I had not heard that an academy class was cancelled. I did hear that it is difficult to find qualified candidates, even after dummying down the written test by eliminating a series of questions. Then there are those who cannot complete either the academy or the following training phases.

Those in power also need to look at the 2009 SDPD candidate, and their generation. You will find a less committed and dedicated candidate. More of a “what’s in it for me” prevailing attitude.

The dedicated and committed employees walked out the door, to one day hopefully be backfilled. However, the new generation of employee will be a lot different. That’s just the way it is. The new enthusiasm will be an employee’s enthusiasm for the “what’s in it for me.”

SDPD will get the least qualified, least committed of the group. Who would want to stay with an agency in constant turmoil and governmental assault on its employees?

SDPD will need to hire. Did management learn from Florida and California agencies when they reduced hiring standards and reduced employee benefits?

All I can say is STAND BY….. (Stand by for corruption, employee theft, use of force issues, etc.)

The MAYOR is the problem and his political policies and hell bent desire to eviscerate the wages and benefits of Police Officers. They mayor is the x-chief of this department.

You are correct; in the corporate world his head would roll and he would be out of work. In the political arena he is insulated from blame and when the only newspaper in town is fueling the fire he is stoking; it is a lose lose for us.

I started this blog to rant. It has turned into a vehicle to inform. The information I use is simply the numbers and not an analysis of them. I leave the analysis to the reader.

Thank you for reading and please be safe.

JUST WONDERING;

This revelation by the UT is what I spoke of in a recent post regarding City Managers getting together to train on how to spin wages and benefits to the public so as to gain support for their reductions and elimination.

This is shaping up to be a full on assault of Civil Servants; their wages and benefits. Police Officers will soon be paid minimum wage and firefighters will be COMPLETELY volunteer if those behind this assault have their way.

I am glad I carry a gun. I am so happy to be retired and away from it all. Sanders has really turned out to be a horses ass. You called it Steve. I did not believe you when you said it years ago. You were dead on with who he is and what he is all about. Too bad more people did not listen.

About Me

Veteran of the San Diego Police Department who retired on 12/30/2011, after 32 years 8 months; San Diego native born and raised; Fed up with the treatment of government workers at the hands of a mayor and city council who do not value the public's interest or safety. Retired from a career in Law Enforcement that for the most part has been entertaining if not educational. I spent 12 years (1994-2006) as a Trustee for the Poway Unified School Districts Board of Education. I also served two stints as a Director for the San Diego Police Officer's Association. Politics has taught me a lot about people. I would be hard pressed to find something good about politics and politicians. So I write